From: Someone Important
by takaondo
Summary: There was only a few days left before Christmas, and Kuchiki Rukia was having trouble finding the right present for someone important to her. Frustrated and running out of time, she turns to Kurosaki Ichigo for some help, but to her surprise, the answer he gives her was one she already knew.


**Disclaimer:** BLEACH belongs to Kubo Tite and Shiueisha Publishings.

**Author's Notes:** Happy holidays. Even though it's been busy, I was able to rush this little piece out for Christmas. This story was inspired by a couple of my friends, who (like probably someone you might know) are having trouble buying gifts for people.

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The sound of a pencil scribbling across paper could be heard from within Kurosaki Ichigo's room.

Oddly enough, his room was quite similar to the rooms of many other teenagers despite the unusual circumstances that differentiated him from most other people. There was a small, single bed located next to the large sliding window. A wooden dresser and metal shelf were situated nearby for convenience. At the far corner of the room, a flat screen television sat atop a small cabinet that was filled with CDs and other assortments of multimedia. There wasn't much of anything else, and the lack of clutter made his room look relatively clean, if not a bit boring and empty.

The only person – or Shinigami – that made his room special that moment was sitting at his desk; her name, Kuchiki Rukia.

Wearing a dark blue sweater that was perhaps a size too big for her, and a long skirt that hung past her knees, it was a modest attire that suited her well. Her hair, like a smooth dark curtain, neatly covered the sides of her face, leaving just one rogue strand dangling at the front. Her thin eye brows were furrowed as her large violet eyes focused intently on paper on the desk. The pencil that she held in her small hand scribbled furiously back and forth over the parchment as she crossed off things that she had previously written down.

She suddenly stopped writing, and with an annoyed grunt, crumpled the paper and threw it thoughtlessly behind her. It landed quietly among the many that had been discarded earlier, forming a small messy pile on the floor of an otherwise clean room.

Rukia then gave a small sigh and she stared off into space with obvious frustration.

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**_From: Someone Important_**

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Ichigo opened the door to his room and entered. He looked a little tired out as a small huff escaped from between his lips. Having expected his room to be empty, it wasn't unusual that he was slightly surprised when he saw Rukia sitting at his desk. However, that surprise quickly turned to annoyance when he also noticed the crumpled balls of paper on the floor behind her. His signature scowl quickly took shape on his face as his irritation grew more and more apparent with each passing second.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked rudely.

Rukia stopped what she was doing and glanced at him from over her shoulder. She seemed neither surprised his sudden presence, nor his impolite demeanor.

"Don't people normally knock before entering?" She asked flatly.

"Not when it's my room!" Ichigo replied heatedly.

Rukia shrugged off his retort and turned back towards the desk, looking as though his words had no visible effect on her. Ichigo's scowl only deepened at lack of concern she showed. Knowing that she had brushed him off rather effortlessly, he grunted with annoyance before walking over to lie down on his bed.

Ichigo stole a glance at her from his bed, and noticed just how hard she was working. For a moment, he looked bothered by the anxiety reflected in her features, but he quickly suppressed that feeling, thinking it was just his imagination. Propping his arms behind his head, he closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. Despite his earlier attitude, he seemed fairly content with her presence, and a comfortable silence fell between the two of them, only breaking every now and then by the scratching of her pencil.

This continued for a few minutes until her pencil suddenly went still, and the sounds of her writing were no more.

"Hey, Ichigo…" She called out to him.

"Hn…?" He replied lazily.

"What do you get a person who has everything?" She asked him.

Ichigo slowly opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her from the bed.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused by her statement.

Rukia frowned lightly before she spoke though she couldn't hide the slight blush crept upon her pale cheeks. "I don't know what kind of Christmas present to get Nii-sama."

Ichigo stared at her, unable to hold back the surprise he felt. The constant writing she had been doing and the crumpled balls of paper on the floor finally made sense; she had been jotting down gift ideas for her brother all this time. He averted his gaze with a small frown of his own. There was no way he was going to be able to refuse helping her, not when she had that kind of expression on her face. He rose and shifted his body, letting his legs fall over the side of his bed over as he sat up.

"Well, let's see. What were the best ideas you've come up with so far?" He asked her.

Rukia looked up in thought as she tried to remember her best ideas. "A potted bamboo plant, a new sleeping yukata, an oil-based painting…"

"What's with the old taste in gifts?" Ichigo commented bluntly with a blank stare. "And definitely not the last one if you're going to be the one to paint it."

A crumpled piece of paper hit him squarely in the face. He scowled as it bounced off onto the wooden floor. Although she didn't turn towards him as she threw it behind her, he knew very well that she had intentionally hit him. After all, her aim had been uncanny with the other trashed balls of paper. They were all sitting close to one another in one neat little pile.

However, Ichigo also knew that he had probably deserved it. He wasn't doing a good job of helping her and Rukia seemed only more discouraged by her lack of progress.

"I'm out of ideas." She muttered, looking defeated as she stared down at the next blank piece of paper.

The frustrated expression on her face caused Ichigo to look away. He thought hard for a few moments as he searched for a solution, and his eyes lit up when an idea finally popped up into his head. Getting up onto his feet, he quickly knelt down next to his bed and pulled out a packaged from underneath. The medium-sized box was enclosed in red wrapping paper that was decorated with images of small Christmas trees. He glanced at it for a moment as if he was second guessing himself, but it didn't take him long to find the courage to continue on with his plan to help her.

"Rukia." He called out to her.

Rukia turned to him with a quick swivel of her chair. A look of surprise quickly appeared on her face as Ichigo wordlessly held the package out towards her with one hand. She didn't immediately take it from him, and when he noticed this, he inched it a little closer to her. It was only then that she understood that he wanted her to take it, and she tentatively took it into her hands.

She glanced at the gift and before looking up at him with confusion.

"Ichigo?" She asked.

"It's your Christmas present." He explained, his gaze not meeting her own. "I'll make an exception and let you open your present early."

"Why?" She asked suspiciously.

"Just open it." He replied with irritation.

Rukia frowned at his attitude, and turned her attention back to the present on her lap. Carefully opening the wrapping paper as though she didn't want to rip it, she found a brown cardboard box underneath the covering. She pulled away the top of the box, and her eyes lit up at the long white scarf that sat within. She felt it with her fingers; it was made out of soft wool that she knew would keep her both comfortable and warm in the cold weather. It was a gift, she thought, that was both practical and thoughtful at the same time.

Rukia turned to him, looking as though she wanted to thank him, but he spoke before she was able to.

"I hope you like it." Ichigo said, still not looking at her.

His statement both surprised and annoyed her. She seemed angered by the mere fact that he had even thought of asking such a thing, and she frowned at him with disapproval.

"Tawake. Of course I like it! It's something that you got me after all–"

Rukia paused mid-sentence and her eyes widened. Ichigo's expression relaxed when he realized that his message had gotten through to her, and he finally turned back to look at her.

"You understand now, don't you?" He said calmly. "Whether it's a potted bamboo plant, a sleeping yukata, or a painting, it's fine. For Byakuya, the kind of gift doesn't matter as long as it's something from you. That's the only thing that's important."

Rukia looked down at the scarf he had given her. She would have understood even if he didn't explain it; neither the gift, nor the thought mattered. The only thing that mattered was that gift came from someone important. Ichigo had given this gift to her to remind her of that. She looked up at him. The uncertainty he once had on his face was now gone, but with the message that he had managed to convey, the reason for that prior hesitation was an obvious one.

He had been afraid that he might have been wrong, not about the gift, but about whether he was important to her or not. She couldn't help feeling amused by this.

"Looks like I was over thinking things, though perhaps I wasn't the only one." She said getting a look of confusion from him. She smiled softly. "Thanks, Ichigo."

Ichigo was visibly taken aback by her gratitude. He scratched the back of his head with a scowl to hide the embarrassment he felt.

"Of course you were!" He replied loudly.

Rukia only smirked at the behavior that she had come to expect from him. "Well, I think I know what I'm going to get Nii-sama now." She said before turning back to the desk.

"Hey, I thought you were done." Ichigo said, noticing that she had started to write again. "What are you still doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I need to figure out what to get you now." She stated without looking at him.

Ichigo scowled. "You idiot, didn't we just finish talking about –"

He couldn't finish his sentence when he finally noticed the focused expression on her face. Any annoyance he felt was instantly dispelled at the sight of it. She was once again working hard, but it was different from before. The stress and impatience she had displayed earlier was no longer there. Instead, it was replaced with a small cheerful smile, a sign that she was now enjoying what she was doing.

Ichigo only sighed, not out of frustration this time, but out of amusement.

He turned to leave, but as he opened the door, he glanced back at her one last time. A small grin tugged at the corner of his lips, and he closed the door behind him to leave her to her work.

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_Fin_

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End file.
